Still Life: Chief Inspector Gamache, Book 1

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

Magpie Murders: A Novel

When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway's latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the best-selling crime writer for years, she's intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan's traditional formula has proved hugely successful.

Masked Ball at Broxley Manor: A Royal Spyness Novella

At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.

The Keeper of Lost Causes: Department Q, Book 1

Jussi Adler-Olsen is Denmark's premier crime writer. His books routinely top the bestseller lists in northern Europe, and he's won just about every Nordic crime-writing award, including the prestigious Glass Key Award-also won by Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, and Jo Nesbo. Now, Dutton is thrilled to introduce him to America.

The Late Show

Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none, as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor. But one night she catches two cases she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn.

Cherringham - A Cosy Crime Series Compilation (Cherringham 1 - 3)

Jack's a retired ex-cop from New York, seeking the simple life in Cherringham. Sarah's a Web designer who's moved back to the village find herself. But their lives are anything but quiet as the two team up to solve Cherringham's criminal mysteries. This compilation contains episodes 1 - 3: MURDER ON THAMES, MYSTERY AT THE MANOR and MURDER BY MOONLIGHT.

The Crossing Places

When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, Ruth Galloway lectures at the University of North Norfolk. She lives happily alone in a remote place called Saltmarsh overlooking the North Sea and, for company; she has her cats Flint and Sparky, and Radio 4. When a child's bones are found in the marshes near an ancient site that Ruth worked on ten years earlier, Ruth is asked to date them.

Final Jeopardy

Alex Cooper awakens one morning to news of her own brutal murder. Soon, Manhattan's top sex-crimes prosecutor discovers that the actual victim is film star Isabella Lascar, who had sought refuge at Alex's private retreat. Now it is up to Alex to find the killer before another victim surfaces.

The Secrets of Wishtide

Mrs. Laetitia Rodd, aged 52, is the widow of an archdeacon who makes her living as a highly discreet private investigator. Her brother, Frederick Tyson, is a criminal barrister living in nearby Highgate with his wife and 10 children. Frederick finds the cases, and Laetitia solves them using her arch intelligence and her immaculate cover as an unsuspecting widow. When a case arises involving the son of the highly connected Sir James Calderstone, Laetitia sets off for Lincolnshire undercover as the family's new governess.

Missing, Presumed: A Novel

At 39, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own. One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep - and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene.

The Face of a Stranger: A William Monk Novel #1

A tragic accident leaves Inspector Monk with amnesia just moments after he solves the murder of a popular Crimean war hero. Forced to redo his entire investigation, a frustrated Monk faces a desperate murderer who will do anything to keep the inspector from discovering the truth twice.

Bruno, Chief Of Police

When an old man is found viciously murdered, a swastika carved in his chest, the obvious conclusion is that this killing must be racist. Suspicion falls on the son of the local doctor, found in flagrant playing sex games surrounded by Nazi paraphernalia.

Publisher's Summary

It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society - where an obsessive historian’s quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful that someone would kill to protect it?

Although he is supposed to be on leave, Gamache cannot walk away from a crime that threatens to ignite long-smoldering tensions between the English and the French. Meanwhile, he is receiving disquieting letters from the village of Three Pines, where beloved Bistro owner Olivier was recently convicted of murder. “It doesn't make sense,” Olivier’s partner writes every day. “He didn't do it, you know.” As past and present collide in this astonishing novel, Gamache must relive the terrible event of his own past before he can bury his dead.

What the Critics Say

"Few writers in any genre can match Penny's ability to combine heartbreak and hope in the same scene. Increasingly ambitious in her plotting, she continues to create characters readers would want to meet in real life." (Publishers Weekly)

When I discovered Armand Gamache, I was hooked. Something about his wisdom and inner peace along with an acute intelligence just made me want to know him more and more. Having read all the previous books, I feel this one meets all expectations. I was hooked from beginning to end and can't wait for the next one to come out.
The additional clip of an interview with Louise Penny was wonderful too. It was so great to hear her love of the characters and places and the fact that she sees the characters grow just as I do.

There are novels with heroes so perfect or predictable it ruins the book for me. I even find myself cringing while reading the synopsis of a new Gray Man, Mitch Rapp or Jack Ryan novel. I think that's why I fell in love with Harry Hole and Dept Q and now Armand Gamache.

Gamache, however, is remarkably different than Hole and Carl Mork. They are as belligerent, arrogant, self destructive and unpredictable as they are brilliant. Inspector Gamache is highly respected and revered by his family, peers, subordinates and superiors. He too is brilliant, but we are made privy to where and from whom it comes from. He is not an island. There's two other characteristics that make him so uniquely different for a lead detective, he is remarkably humble and vulnerable.

In Bury Your Dead, Gamache is on leave after suffering injury and PTSD from a recent case that ended violently and tragically. The details of this case are masterfully weaved around two separate murders revealed throughout the novel. To recooperate he's vacationing at the home of his retired mentor in Quebec while researching his first love, French Canadien history. A murdered man is discovered in the basement of the research library where Gamache studies. Given his reputation he is reluctantly drawn into the investigation.

And there's a nagging doubt about a previous mutrder in Three Pines that forces him to send back a key member of his team to quietly reopen the case. In this way, once again, we are brought into the remarkable lives of the villagers of Three Pines.

As always there's much more than murder afoot. Do yourself a favor and read this book!

I could not stop listening so for over 12hrs almost 13hrs. I was on Ms. Penny's wonderful mystery adventure. I like to check in with the residents of Three Pines to hear what exciting things are happening in the nice quite village that always has a murder to solve. This is a great addition to the Three Pines series.

Louise Penny continues to excel with each novel. This latest in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series is a tour de force. It's a complicated story, with essentially four narratives running parallel and often intersecting. There is the current murder to solve, that of an historian in the basement of the Literary and Historical Society. There is the previous mystery from Three Pines: that of the hermit in the woods, for which Olivier was convicted and sent to prison. And there is the shared experience of a case gone horribly wrong, an experience shared by Beauvoir and Gamache. While Gamache tries to solve the historian's murder, Beauvoir is in Three Pines to covertly and unofficially re-open the case of the previous murder. And while each man is on his separate journey, each remembers with well-placed flashbacks the case that almost killed them both. The flashbacks are an excruciating but pleasurable tease for the reader, because you don't know until near the very end what actually happened to Gamache and Beauvoir. Penny's deftly interlaces the flashbacks with current action, and Beauvoir's trip to Three Pines gives the reader some necessary comedic relief from the horror that is revealed through his memories. Cosham's narration is excellent as always. I am thoroughly spoiled by him, and hope that he will continue to narrate Penny's future Gamache novels.

I am completely hooked on this series, in love with the characters, fascinated by the world that Louise Penny has created. This novel also offers a lot of Quebec history and we spend time in one of my favorite places - Quebec City, particularly the old walled city. I enjoyed the interwoven plots -- 3 of them -- and the further development of both Gamache's and Beauvoir's characters. I was a bit frustrated with the extensive recap of a previous story -- that usually drives me crazy in series. Here, though there's enough that's new that it's not all repetition. Most of all, I love Penny's exploration of the human heart. So many wonderful insights about grief and loss and love and hate. I like that her characters have depth and complexity. But they're also reliable -- Ruth, Clara, Gabri, Myrna. How I wish I could sit with them all in front of the fire at the Bistro and eat some of that amazing food that Penny is always writing about. Her books make me hungry - for more! Can't wait to download the next one.

More than others in the series, it would be a mistake to read this novel before having completed its predecessor "The Brutal Telling". This story involves two apparently independent mysteries, the one being a follow-on to the conclusion of "The Brutal Telling," the other, being a hunt for the murderer of a controversial character Augustin Renaud, seeker of the grave of the founder of Quebec City, Samuel de Champlain.

To enjoy the Inspector Gamache series, you must like police procedurals and character development. Otherwise, you will find these plots slow to develop with lots of seemingly irrelevant side trails explored. However, along the way, you learn about the history and culture of Quebec, and meet some extremely interesting characters living in the remote village of Three Pines. The continuity of the series is as usual associated with the central characters, but these seem like real people who evolve and change with time. The mysteries almost take a second place to the characters and the context. The books are about friendship, growth, complex personalities, conflict resolution, and psychological flaws. Everyone is both good and bad, strong and weak, objective while prejudiced, emotionally frail in certain ways while courageous in others. The prose is wonderfully constructed and a pleasure to read.

I love Louise Penny novels and her character Inspector Gamache is so engaging. I don't think this is her best book but try as I might, I cannot stop listening once I start. This book has two plots, one in Three Pines and the other in Quebec City. The reader is educated about the history of Quebec and the conflicts between Anglophones and Francophones. Intricately woven through this duo plot are flash-backs to a police operation gone bad involving Gamache.

I've enjoyed the opportunity to experience Louise Penny's growth as an author with the Three Pines mysteries. Each book in this series gets better, and this one is a small masterpiece of construction, characterization and plot. I was completely entranced. Penny shows us the (for most of us) unfamiliar culture of Quebec, while also delving deeper into the central personalities that inhabit each of these novels. Armand Gamache is one of those rare characters that we want to spend time with, and he is complemented by his temperamental second-in-command. Unlike the other books in the series, (which are really cozy mysteries in the classic style) this one surprises with its violent, dramatic climax, told in a series of wrenching flashbacks. Mystery novels don't get much better than this!

I am an enthusiastic fan of Louise Penny and Chief Inspector Gamache. This particular entry in the series takes us away from Three Pines and to Quebec. This is a nice change of pace, and there's some lovely details about the history and culture of Quebec. Not perhaps the best introduction to the series -- you really should start with "Still Life", but a good addition to the series.